CARE Right

Committed to ALARA

Enable the Right Dose with best-in-class technology

In order to reduce radiation to the right dose, of course, the first prerequisite is still the appropriate hardware: healthcare institutions need the right technology. Siemens Healthineers has a long tradition of being an innovation leader in CT technology: whether it was the introduction of CARE (Combined Applications to Reduce Exposure) in the 1990s, Dual Source CT in the 2000s, or the Stellar detector in the 2010s, Siemens Healthineers has continuously been one step ahead. Therefore, it was a logical consequence that Siemens Healthineers was named “the low dose leader to catch” when its SOMATOM® Definition Flash won the 2011 Best in KLAS award.1 Overall, this was due to the fact that Siemens Healthineers offers a comprehensive and innovative portfolio of unique dose reduction features.

Focus on the individual patient and examination

In order to achieve the right dose for a patient, there are three important factors to consider: the size and stature of the patient, the type of examination, and the applied radiation dose. With Siemens Healthineers’ technology, all of these aspects can be addressed:

The Tin Filter cuts out lower energies to reduce dose and optimize image quality at the interface between soft tissue and air. This has direct benefits in lung and colon imaging, for example.

ADMIRE (Advanced Modeled Iterative Reconstruction) is an advanced iterative image reconstruction algorithm that achieves higher resolution at organ borders and improved delineation of edges.² One advantage of this is that it may potentially allow clinicians to better localize lesions. Fast reconstruction times also mean that ADMIRE can smoothly integrate into daily clinical routines.

SAFIRE (Sinogram Affirmed Iterative Reconstruction) is a unique image reconstruction algorithm that reduces noise³ without affecting image quality or detail visualization. It does this by introducing multiple iteration steps into the raw data during the reconstruction process.

CARE kV offers an automated dose-optimized selection of the X-ray tube voltage (kV) depending on the selected type of examination. It is the industry’s first tool that automatically determines the appropriate kV and scan parameter settings to help deliver the right dose for a particular scan and the user defined image quality.

Low kV One of the main parameters of a scan protocol is the tube voltage, kV. The SOMATOM scanners offers different kV values from 70 to 150 kV depending on the scanner type. The tube voltage is an important parameter that has an impact on radiation dose and image impression.

Adaptive Dose ShieldIn spiral CT, it is routine to do an extra half-rotation of the gantry before and after each scan, even though only part of the acquired data is necessary for the image reconstruction. ​The Adaptive Dose Shield, a technology based on precise, fast, and independent movement of both collimator blades asymmetrically opens and closes at the beginning and end of each spiral scan, temporarily blocking those parts of the X-ray beam that are not used for image reconstruction. As a result, only the targeted tissue is irradiated.

2Image quality as defined by low contrast detectability using a model observer method for evaluation. Equivalent low contrast detectability can be achieved with 80% to 85% less dose using ADMIRE at highest strength level for thin (0.6 mm) reconstruction slices in measured and simulated body and head phantoms for low contrast objects with different contrasts. See ADMIRE data sheet for further information.In clinical practice, the use of ADMIRE may reduce CT patient dose depending on the clinical task, patient size, anatomical location, and clinical practice. A consultation with a radiologist and a physicist should be made to determine the appropriate dose to obtain diagnostic image quality for the particular clinical task.

3In clinical practice, the use of SAFIRE may reduce CT patient dose depending on the clinical task, patient size, anatomical location, and clinical practice. A consultation with a radiologist and a physicist should be made to determine the appropriate dose to obtain diagnostic image quality for the particular clinical task. The following test method was used to determine a 54 to 60% dose reduction when using the SAFIRE reconstruction software. Noise, CT numbers, homogeneity, low-contrast resolution and high contrast resolution were assessed in a Gammex 438 phantom. Low dose data reconstructed with SAFIRE showed the same image quality compared to full dose data based on this test. Data on file.